Looking to hire digital marketing expertise

[Christie L]

Hello UK Biz Forum,
I'm new to the community and wondering if this might be an appropriate post. Apologies if not.

I'm preparing to launch a small b2c ecommerce in the UK. The question is in regards to the customer acquisition campaigns.

I have a background in b2b marketing but it's been a looong time since I dealt with SEM, and have no direct experience wtih social media ads/marketing. I'm unsure of myself in this b2c environment and think it would be good to have someone to overlook the implementation of these campaigns.

The overall strategy is in place, with competitive research done, complete PPC campaign, and FB assets in development -- but I would really like some fresh expertise for overview and implementation + potential maintenance.

It is a small business so limited budget to get started. If anyone has a recommendation of a reliable freelance professional or agency in the SME/ecommerce niche, I'd much appreciate it.
Many thanks!

 

[Paul Green]

Hi Christie - me again. The best place to meet suppliers is through networking. I know a few social media specialists.

Unfortunately this system limits me right now sharing links, so Google "Green Umbrella Marketing" - talk to Christina, she's head honcho! They do a monthly "social media club" that provides some great insights.

Good luck

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

Hello Christie,

Many things depends on your niche. For example, for many niches using Google Shopping Campaigns beter than serch campaigns. Sometimes SEO works good for ecommerce sites. It'd be better to have a detailed information to help you.

 

[Paul Carmen]

No one can really answer your questions without knowing more about your business and marketing plan; e.g.

• what are you selling
• who's your target customer/demographic
• who are your competitors
• how will you be different, what will make people use you/your site
• who's building the site and what's the platform
• what's the budget for both marketing work and the marketing spend
• what's the short, medium and long term plan

These are the sort of things that determine what you need to spend and who you should work with.

The reality is the worst performance is usually early on, unless you're buying a going concern, as marketing takes research, trial and error, plus constant learning and optimisation.

Too many people think working with someone who builds a site and sets up some marketing is the key. That's only the start, as organic ranking and marketing success is about long term work and optimisation of systems, landing pages etc.

You need to put together a plan and then ask companies/individuals how they'd deliver it for you and speak to people they've worked with to get real recommendations.

 

[Christie L]

Hi Christie - me again. The best place to meet suppliers is through networking. I know a few social media specialists.

Unfortunately this system limits me right now sharing links, so Google "Green Umbrella Marketing" - talk to Christina, she's head honcho! They do a monthly "social media club" that provides some great insights.

Good luck

Thanks Paul will check Green Umbrella!

 

[Christie L]

Hello Christie,

Many things depends on your niche. For example, for many niches using Google Shopping Campaigns beter than serch campaigns. Sometimes SEO works good for ecommerce sites. It'd be better to have a detailed information to help you.

Hi Aleksander
I will def try google shopping, but I'd like to have some data on the initial ppc campaigns to then compare ROI. But yes, SEO is super important in our niche and hopefully the site blog will work on that, on top of product pages etc.
Many thanks!

 

[Christie L]

No one can really answer your questions without knowing more about your business and marketing plan; e.g.

• what are you selling
• who's your target customer/demographic
• who are your competitors
• how will you be different, what will make people use you/your site
• who's building the site and what's the platform
• what's the budget for both marketing work and the marketing spend
• what's the short, medium and long term plan

These are the sort of things that determine what you need to spend and who you should work with.

The reality is the worst performance is usually early on, unless you're buying a going concern, as marketing takes research, trial and error, plus constant learning and optimisation.

Too many people think working with someone who builds a site and sets up some marketing is the key. That's only the start, as organic ranking and marketing success is about long term work and optimisation of systems, landing pages etc.

You need to put together a plan and then ask companies/individuals how they'd deliver it for you and speak to people they've worked with to get real recommendations.

Hi Paul,
Many thanks for your reply.

I'm glad to read your post, as there is plan in place, with the roadmap for a 12-months integrated campaign to get the first year on a solid start, as much as possible, with a tiny budget and team (me).

I'm hoping to shortened that "worst performance period" to a bare minimum, and I will need help because the implementation & long-term optimisation process you mention will be my achilles-hill.

Perhaps an ideal job for freelancers or a small agency happy to focus on that, without the need to revisit strategy, branding etc.

I like your idea to provide a version of the plan so companies/individuals can bid on how they would deliver - that should help speed things up.

Many thanks!

 

[Victor A]

Hi Christie, I completely agree with most of the posts so far - inparticular Paul(on networking) & Paul(on marketing plan). I cant make any recommendations without knowing more details about your customer segment, as you know the different major social media platforms all have different demographics. I will encourage you to read "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries, section of the book is dedicated to customer developments along with practical examples.
Having said, check upwork and peopleperhour both have lots of freelancers with 100 of reviews from companies you might recognise.

 

[Christie L]

Hi Christie, I completely agree with most of the posts so far - inparticular Paul(on networking) & Paul(on marketing plan). I cant make any recommendations without knowing more details about your customer segment, as you know the different major social media platforms all have different demographics. I will encourage you to read "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries, section of the book is dedicated to customer developments along with practical examples.
Having said, check upwork and peopleperhour both have lots of freelancers with 100 of reviews from companies you might recognise.

Hi... thanks for the book recommendation, will check it out for sure. I agree with you that the freelancing platforms are very useful (Fiverr being my fav). Glad to see I'm not alone in using them!